NEWSFLASH

NPA DEMAND FOR SOUTHERN TAGALOG CEASEFIRE REJECTED

Quezon City, Feb. 9, 2000 - Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado flatly rejected yesterday demands of communist rebels for a suspension of military operations in the entire Southern Tagalog.

The demands, relayed to Mercado by Senator Loren Legarda, are supposed to be pre-conditions to the release of Army Maj. Noel Buan and police Chief Inspector Abelardo Martin who were abducted by the New People's Army (NPA) last year.

Legarda told Mercado in a recent meeting that the Netherlands-based leaders of the National Democratic Front (NDF) demanded that the Armed Forces stop its rescue efforts for Buan and Martin and suspend its operations in the region.

If the NDF is sincere in releasing the officers, Mercado said it should not impose any conditions.

"We are willing to help in the release (of the officers), but the rebels should specify the area (where military operations will be suspended)," Mercado said, adding it is unthinkable for the government to suspend its drive against communist rebels in the entire region.

He said the NPA will only take advantage of the hiatus by moving and consolidating its forces.

The suspension of military operations, he added, will also enable the NPA to acquire more arms and collect "revolutionary taxes" from the local populace and businesses to finance their battle against duly constituted authorities.

Buan, deputy intelligence chief of the Armed Forces' Southern Luzon Command, was abducted by NPA guerrillas in Quezon in July 1999. Four months later, rebels raided the Dolores, Quezon police station, and took Martin, the town's police chief, as hostage.